Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed as his new ‘minister for equalities’ an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage who previously said the state had “no right” to redefine marriage.

Caroline Dinenage, who
was appointed parliamentary undersecretary of state at the
Ministry of Justice and the minister for equalities at the
Department for Education on Tuesday, voted against same sex
marriage in 2013.

In the same year she also told LGBT newspaper PinkNews that the
“state has no right” to change the traditional meaning
of marriage, adding that “preventing same-sex couples from
being allowed to marry takes nothing away from their
relationship.”

In a letter to the publication, Dinenage said the legal
definition of marriage was dependent on the church, which states
that “marriage is in its nature a union of ‘one man and one
woman.’”

“These proposals were not included in any of the three main
manifestoes [sic] nor did it feature in the Coalition’s Programme
for Government. As I have mentioned, under current law same-sex
couples can have a civil partnership but not a civil marriage and
I believe that there is no legitimate reason to change this.

“Preventing same-sex couples from being allowed to ‘marry’
takes nothing away from their relationship,” she wrote.

The MP for Gosport faced a wash of criticism after her
appointment was announced, but has since tweeted that she is
fully in support of same-sex marriage and is committed to
furthering the rights of LGBT individuals.

To all the others I want to be clear - I support equal marriage
& I'm fully committed to advancing the cause of LGBT
equality moving forward

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan was an equally controversial
choice for the position of equalities minister when she was
appointed in 2013.

Morgan and Dinenage both voted against the legalization of
same-sex marriage in 2013, along with other high-ranking Tories
who now sit in Cameron’s cabinet, including Michael Fallon, Priti
Patel, Robert Halfon, John Whittingdale, Stephen Crab and Jeremy
Wright.